The revitalization of the main agro-ecological zones for production and consequent reduction of rice imports are the main lines of a meeting scheduled for this year, between the Mozambique Cereals Institute (ICM) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADER).
Data provided by Mohamed Valá, ICM director-general, indicate that the consultations between the two institutions should revolve around the revitalization of the rice agro-ecological areas, namely the irrigated areas of Chókwè, in Gaza province; Mundamunda and Tewe, in Zambézia, among others.
The idea is to also revitalize the Chókwè Agro-industrial Company (CAIC) and the Faproarna, the latter in Zambézia province, with capacity for 200 and 150 tons of agro-processing, respectively.
“One of the actions contained in the Government’s Five Year Plan 2020/24, in its priority II, is to boost economic growth, productivity and employment generation, ensure the transformation and modernization of the production and commercialization organization mode to leverage national production. It is in this context that the consultation scheduled with MADER is inserted,” framed Valá.
In Mozambique, rice is, along with corn, one of the two cereals that form the basis of the diet of the population, with an estimated per capita consumption of 23 kilograms.
Although the country has adequate agro-ecological conditions for its production, domestic consumption is sustained through imports, whose deficit is above 500 thousand tons.
In almost the entire country, rainfed and irrigated systems are competitive, with the exception that the former is only competitive in cases where the marketing costs are minimal, or in other words, where the product has little mobility (production, processing and consumption take place in the same place).
In relation to irrigated rice, available studies indicate, for example, that rice from Chókwè can supply the city of Maputo, the main consumer market for the product and highly vulnerable to price increases.
Experts argue that the rice produced in Chokwè to supply the capital’s market is competitive and has comparative advantages over imports from Asia, as is currently the case.
